FEATURE: Ruff Everything Devils 'Knew He Would Be' In First Season

The Devils brass assembled during the summer of 2020 with a big decision to make: whom would lead the young, upstart club into the 2020-21 season and beyond? The search for a new head coach was underway.
As management put together a list of what they desired in the team's new bench boss, one name kept meeting all the criteria: Lindy Ruff.

"As the process continued to move forward, Lindy continued to step to the forefront," Fitzgerald said on July 9, 2020, the day Ruff was announced as the team's new head coach. "One, I was looking for NHL head coaching experience. Two, a presence, someone who's been there, done that, and could walk into a room and actually grab the attention of our young team with the experience that they've gained over a number of years as a head coach. Personality, the group needs a teacher, someone who's going to come in and teach, and messages are going to be extremely clear, no break at all in the messaging. Believable, which goes with presence.
"As we continued to go deeper into that process with questions, the infectious personality that Lindy Ruff has is a big part of who he is. He's a lighthearted person. He's played the game. He's coached young talent and other criteria. As far as teamwork, I felt Lindy Ruff was the best person for this job."
Ten months later, as the Devils concluded their first season under Ruff, Fitzgerald looked back on his decision with a smile.
"He was everything that I knew he would be," Fitzgerald said of Ruff. "He's genuine. He's honest. He can motivate. He's a great listener. He'll go out of his way to understand players and listen to them. I think there was a major trust factor that went between Lindy as the head coach and the organization."
Ruff, 61, brought everything to the table that Fitzgerald had hoped for: experience, presence, teaching and personality.
Experience
Ruff's experience was obvious from the start. His latest season with the Devils was his 20th as a head coach in the NHL (Buffalo, 1997-13; Dallas, 2013-17), not to mention another seven as an assistant. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach in 2006 while finishing second and third in voting in 2007 and 2016 respectively. Ruff led the Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup Final and has a career playoff record of 66-54. Ruff has been behind the bench as head coach for nearly 1,500 games (1,493) with 755 wins on his resume.
And that's just what Ruff accomplished in a suit. In uniform, Ruff appeared in 691 NHL games over 12 seasons as a defenseman/forward with Buffalo and NY Rangers. Ruff has been around the NHL since 1979, a span of 42 years.
That type of experience certainly got the attention of the young Devils squad, including the captain.
"I like him. He brings tons of experience," center Nico Hischier, 22, said. "We are a young group of guys. He knows exactly what it takes in this league to win games and have success. He can teach us a lot. He can teach me a lot. It's good to have a coach like that with a young team like that."
Presence
Ruff brought all that experience with him as he walked into the locker room and addresses the team. He says what he means, and means what he says. And the message goes from the head coach to the assistant coaches to the staff to the players and back up the chain.
Ruff doesn't take the draconian approach of 'head coach as dictator.' Instead, he believes in a unified effort.
"From a staff standpoint we tried to have unparalleled communication with players," he said. "This is a partnership."
Though Ruff spoke with authority, he was receptive to an open dialogue that his players appreciated.
"He knows how to talk to players. He's been doing it for a long time," forward Pavel Zacha, 24, said. "I think he tried to get the best of out of us the whole season."
Teacher
Perhaps Ruff's most important job this season was that as a teacher. The season wasn't going to be judged on wins and losses (New Jersey finished the year 19-30-7). The season was judged on growth, improvement and development, taking a neophyte roster and mentoring these young professionals into getting closer to fulfilling their talents.
"I said from Day 1 that I was going to have to have patience to help growth," Ruff said. "I was going to have to earn their trust. I didn't ask for it. I said I would earn it."
But, with growth comes mistakes. And Ruff's approach to those mistakes, balancing patience with accountability, was a critical part of the team's development.
"I'll give you the opportunity to make the plays under duress. I understand that there are going to be mistakes made. We're going to have to learn from those mistakes," he said. "We can't keep making the same mistakes. There's a consequence for the same mistakes. At different times some players sat out games, some players sat out shifts, some players sat out periods. It's part of the growth process. It's part of the accountability process."
That balance was displayed with players like 19-year-old Jack Hughes. Ruff gave the first-overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft some room to be creative with his talents, while understanding there would be the occasional turnover or missed assignment. As the year progressed, Hughes' role grew to getting defensive assignments against the opposition's best players and taking key defensive zone faceoffs late in games.
"He let me play. He gave me leash," Hughes said. "He was great for me. He gave me an opportunity. That's what I needed. I need an opportunity to get a ton of ice and be that guy, and he gave me that opportunity."
But players weren't given license to do whatever they wanted. In a March 26 game at Washington, Hughes' first three shifts of the game coincided with the Capitals scoring two goals. Hughes was benched for the remainder of the first period, but was back in his regular rotation by the second period. Though he wasn't mistake-free in the last two periods, his play did improve.
"Players knew - they didn't want to make mistakes - but they weren't going to be punished with ice time," Fitzgerald said. "Now I think if mistakes continue throughout a game, or throughout a player's week in games, Lindy will also teach accountability. But I think there's a major trust there.
"Trust is important. He didn't just say it, he did it. Actions speak louder than words. When Lindy would come down to a player and said, 'hey, you can't make that player right there.' That player didn't lose a shift. And he felt like the coach had his back."
Personality
It may seem to be an odd fit having a sexagenarian coach with a group of early-20-something players. However, that was exactly what the Devils wanted, and precisely what they needed.
The day Ruff was hired, Hall of Fame goaltender and Devils advisor Martin Brodeur said: "We have such a young team. We wanted to get a father figure."
That father-figure was exactly what the Devils received. But he wasn't the disciplinarian father figure, more like a light-hearted, but stern father figure. You know, one that will yell when needed, but also dropped a lot of lame, dad jokes.
"I loved the way he coached," said forward Miles Wood, who would become part of the team's new leadership group during the season. "I loved the way that he joked around in practice. But when it came down to play, he was all serious. He's a great guy. I'm happy he's our coach, for sure."
Ruff's optimistic personality certainly shone through to his players. Even in the darkest times during the season, such as the team's 10-game losing streak, Ruff kept his head high and continued to be a steady presence for his players.
"His infectious personality rubbed off on all of our players," Fitzgerald said. "I don't think you'll find a player that didn't love playing (for) Lindy Ruff."
Summation
Fitzgerald laid out his criteria for a head coach last summer: experience, presence, teacher, personality. Ruff checked all the boxes at the time, and lived up to the expectations throughout the course of an unprecedented 2020-21 season that featured a delayed year, condensed schedule, the loss of a starting goaltender in training camp, the loss of the team's captain on several occasions, a two-week pause due to a COVID-19 outbreak, an extra condensed, condensed schedule and the loss of longtime veteran players at the trade deadline.
And through it all, Ruff was there to execute perfectly the grooming of the team, a remarkable feat that few others could have accomplished.
"The only way to (grow) was to give (the players) opportunity," Fitzgerald said. "It's easy for me to say as the manager that I want to give players A, B, C, D, E an opportunity, but you have to have a coach that believes in that. Lindy sure did. You saw the way he handled our kids. You saw us reap the benefits of that handling."
Ruff also left an impression with some of the veteran players, like alternate captain Damon Severson, who has been with the Devils for six seasons and is an elder statesman on the team at 26 years old.
"He's a solid guy. He has a very calm, cool demeanor," the defenseman said. "There was a lot of teaching. There was a lot of stuff we went over. He's a solid coach. And he wants the best out of his players, and he wants his best guys to be his best guys.
"I respect him. He's been in the game a long time."
And Ruff's best quality may be his belief in the team over the individual. Ruff believes fully in the team-orientated concept. And just like the accountability he demands of his players, he demands the same of himself and his coaching staff.
"We're in this together," Ruff said. "It isn't 'you guys make a mistake, we yell and scream at you and you're going to get better.' (It's) we feel your pain. We're going to help you through that, but we're asking you guys to be a lot better as players.
"I'm asking myself and my staff to be a lot better for when the puck drops for the opening game of next season."